Mark Jacobs moves toward Iowa Senate run

Former energy executive Mark Jacobs is forming an exploratory committee to run for Iowa’s open seat in the United States Senate, adding a deep-pocketed businessman to the growing field of Republicans vying for the GOP nomination next year.

An Iowa native who headed the Houston-based company Reliant Energy, Jacobs has openly mulled a Senate campaign for weeks, visiting local GOP dinners to gauge support for a possible run. He met earlier this year with the National Republican Senatorial Committee to discuss the race.

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In a statement Wednesday, the businessman cast himself as a candidate of “Iowa core values” running against the Washington D.C. cesspool.

“It is clear that our country is on the wrong track, and we need fresh perspective in Washington. From what I’ve already heard, there is strong interest in electing leaders with real-life business experience and sound conservative principles to get things done,” he said.

Jacobs joins an already-crowded group of candidates on the GOP side of the race to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin.

Former U.S. Attorney Matt Whitaker, talk-radio host Sam Clovis and David Young, the former chief of staff to GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, are already in the race. State Sen. Joni Ernst is likely to join the field as well and has secured a senior strategist for an expected campaign.

Jacobs’s personal financial resources and private-sector background may help set him apart from that crew, though he can also expect to face criticism for his long absence from Iowa – while working in business in Texas – as well as close scrutiny of his business record.

Democrats have rallied around Rep. Bruce Braley as their presumptive nominee in the race, and the congressman raised over a million dollars for his campaign during the first quarter of the year.

A Des Moines Register poll earlier this month showed that most Iowans are unfamiliar with the collection of candidates running for Senate in both parties.

But Braley is both better-known and better-financed at this point than his opposition, after a number of higher-profile Republicans declined to enter the race.